


Eye Of The Beholder

by raendown



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-16 06:14:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14805896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: In Hashirama's opinion, Madara is the Cutest Thing Ever™. No one ever believes him when he says so but that just means he gets to keep these moments for himself.





	Eye Of The Beholder

As a person with a naturally – or unnaturally according to some – cheerful disposition, Hashirama woke most mornings with a smile already painted on his face, ready to face the hours to come with everlasting enthusiasm. Today was no different than many others but for the way his smile grew even wider upon opening his eyes and taking in the state of the bed he shared with his partner.

Dark tufts of hopelessly tangled hair peeked out from where Madara’s head was buried underneath the blankets, antisocial even while he slept. The fingers of one hand were just barely visible, twitching while he dreamed, and the rest of him existed as no more than a misshapen lump of blankets all sprawled out in to whatever space was available. Hashirama sighed in contentment and searched through the mass of tangles until he located the back of Madara’s head. Nothing made a morning quite as pleasant for him as the opportunity to wake his partner gently with soft strokes on the head.

Immediately he was rewarded with a rumbling purring sound and Hashirama grinned as the lump under the blankets shifted towards him, a sleepy Madara curling in to his chest on instinct. The very first morning they woken up together he had been threatened with violence if he ever revealed to anyone that Uchiha Madara was a closet snuggler and Hashirama was rather proud of himself for managing to keep that information under wraps for as many years as he had. If he were honest, however, it had been the thought of losing his right to experience moments like these which had held his tongue more so than fear of whatever violence might be visited upon his person. His partner was pretty violent even when he was happy.

Smiling became grinning uncontrollably when the inquisitive nose bumping against his shoulder snuffled its way into his neck and settled there to purr contentedly under his attentions. Hashirama did his best to keep his body still but for the hand still petting the back of Madara’s head, trying to ignore the urge to squirm with happiness. It never mattered how much time had passed since they finally fell in to an official relationship; seeing his beloved so happy, so at ease, would never stop bringing him right to the edge of joyful tears.

“I can _hear_ your stupid mushy thoughts,” Madara’s voice grumbled from out of sight.  

“But pumpkin I just love you so much,” Hashirama replied, deliberately exaggerating the simper in his words. Madara snarled briefly but it faded back in to purring when the petting turned instead to fingernails scratching along his scalp.

“Stupid nickname. Never agreed to that. Always trying to embarrass me.” He continued to grumble in half sentences and disconnected thoughts until Hashirama finally gave in and began to wriggle, his entire body squirming like a snake under the force of so many emotions. Knowing how much his partner hated trying to cuddle once he started that, however, Hashirama planted a kiss on the top of Madara’s messy head and slowly began the process of extracting himself from the bed.

“Don’t lie in bed for too long, okay? You have a meeting at ten and Brother will be mad at both of us if you miss it again.”

All he received in answer was a few more grumbles and spindly fingers trying to hold him in place as he fought his way out of the blankets. Once it became clear that he very much intended to get up and would not be wrestled back down, Madara rolled over with a petulant air to curl in to a ball, still visible as no more than a dark puff above pale blue quilts.

How the rest of the world failed to see him as adorable was completely beyond Hashirama. It was as clear as day to him.

Today’s good mood lasted all the way through breakfast and a rather pleasant morning walk to the office, only slightly tarnished when he was immediately set upon by a frantic Kagami searching for somewhere to hide for a while. Evidently he’d set something on fire again. He allowed the young man to hide under his desk as he sorted through the paperwork he had abandoned last night, although as soon as Tobirama showed up with a pinched expression he gave up Kagami’s position in a flash. There were very few things he feared and his brother’s temper was one of them. Kagami’s pitiful attempts at revenge were not.

“Hokage-sama I trusted you!” Kagami whined and thrashed in the hold Tobirama had on the back of his neck. “Come on, please? I’m your favorite Uchiha aren’t I? I’m everyone’s favorite Uchiha – you know, ‘cause I’m so cute.” The young man flashed a winning smile which, Hashirama couldn’t help but notice, seemed to take a great deal of the edge off of Tobirama’s anger.

“Sorry but you’re nowhere near as cute as Madara,” he disagreed. Both Kagami and Tobirama stopped moving for a moment to give him matching looks of incredulity.

“Anija be serious. Many words could describe that howling barbarian but ‘cute’ is not one of them.”

“Ooh don’t be mean! He is too cute!”

Kagami lifted one hand and wobbled it back and forth. “Not really? I would describe him more as a walking terror beast.” Hashirama pouted.

“He is, though. He even purrs when I pet him and it’s just the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!” He watched exasperatedly as the other two raised a single eyebrow each, completely in sync, and decided that they had been spending entirely too much time together lately.

“Bullshit,” was all his brother said.

“Well fine then. You can take that negative attitude right out of my office, the both of you!”

His words must have reminded Tobirama why he was here and that he was supposed to be mad about fire-related property damage because a well-worn scowl slipped back over his face then. Kagami gave a strangled noise as the grip on his neck tightened once more, although it didn’t look like he was really in all that much pain.

Since neither of them were being very polite at the moment Hashirama felt no guilt for ignoring the piteous cries for help Kagami sent out to him as he was escorted from the room. Anyone who didn’t think Madara was cute was _wrong_ and he was in too good of a mood to allow blasphemous thoughts like that ruin his day. He reached for his paperwork instead and allowed a small smile to work its way back on to his face while he read through a report on the latest produce purchases, his eyes concentrating on someone’s concerns about the local farmland while his heart was still back in their warm bed at home.

With no one there to distract him Hashirama managed to get a surprising amount of paperwork done over the next few hours. Of course, he was helped along by the fact that he could feel two distinct chakra signatures burning away like vultures in the empty board room across the hall, just waiting for him to pop his head out so they could terrify him back in to productivity. Sometimes he very much regretted introducing Mito to his cousin Touka. Their marriage was quite possibly the most terrifying thing to happen to his precious village.

Eventually Madara came to his rescue just before the noon hour, his face dark in a way which said he had indeed made it on time to his meeting but it hadn’t exactly gone the way he’d hoped.

“Can none of these arrogant Hyuga go more than five minutes without mentioning how ‘superior’ their Byakugan are?” Madara slammed the door shut behind himself and dropped two bento boxes in the middle of the correspondence Hashirama had only half-finished writing. “Not only is it annoying, it’s entirely incorrect. Clearly the Sharingan are superior. Those puffed up nincompoops barely understand what true power really looks like.”

“Bad day?” Hashirama asked, standing from his chair while Madara flopped in to another.

“Hmph.”

Despite his partner’s obvious bad mood, all Hashirama wanted to do was smile. Even if he did nothing but listen to the other complain for an hour it was still time well spent in his opinion. As long as they were together he was happy. The only thing which could make the moment better was if Madara were happy too.

There wasn’t really much he could do for that, however. After so many years together he was well aware that once Madara worked himself in to a tither he wasn’t very open to suggestions on how to calm down. Usually the best thing to do was to just let his irritation run its course and listen supportively. With that in mind Hashirama made his way around the desk to stand behind the chair Madara had sprawled himself across and buried both of his hands in the black hair he so loved to play with.

Almost immediately a quiet groan escaped Madara’s lips and his head tilted back to rest against Hashirama’s belly. Then he groaned again when the fingers in his hair began to massage in soothing circles, occasionally drifting away to comb though the top few inches only to return to their previous motions. Without seeming to realize it, he began to purr.

“I don’t know why no one believes me about how cute you are. You’re the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Hashirama.”

“Yes, pumpkin?”

“Shut up and pet me.”

“Of course, love!”

What others might have taken offense to only made him smile even wider because Hashirama knew things about his partner that others failed to grasp. He knew that Madara’s demands for affection were as good as a declaration of unending love. Just the very act of him accepting these kinds of touches without breaking any fingers was a big step for someone who despised most human beings.

It may have taken a long time but Hashirama had wormed his way in to the hardest hard in the five great nations and there was nothing that might ever convince him to set his sights elsewhere.

Just as nothing could convince him that his partner was anything other than the cutest thing in the whole wide world, even if no one ever believed him when he said so. He knew. Madara allowed him – and only him – to see these precious moments. That was really all that was important.


End file.
